December 24-30: Including Christmas Church Service and Matinee Idle

CHRISTMAS EVE

Saturday Morning Christmas Eve Special (Radio New Zealand National, 8.10am). Kim Hill and producer Mark Cubey wrap up the year with a light and fruity mix of interviews old and new, reminiscences, shout-outs, music and seasonal fun.

Music 101 – Summer Edition with Kirsten Johnstone (Radio New Zealand National, 12.12pm). Today’s programme is a veritable bouquet of fresh, summery stuff, including Karl Steven’s decidedly odd doco, The Secret Life of the Musical Saw at 12.30pm; Panel: NZ Music Retail 2011 – a look at the future of retail music in New Zealand – at 1.15pm; Live: Little Bushman at the Powerstation at 3.05pm; and MixTape: Ladi6 at 4.05pm.

The Choir of King's College Cambridge, photo Getty Images

Compilation Episode 1, Recorded Live at Roundhead Studios (95bFM, 11.00am and Friday, 2.00pm). Today it’s an assortment of session tracks that were chopped from earlier programmes, plus some newer acts as well. Featuring Cool Cult, Princess Chelsea, The Psychs, Heart Attack Alley, Tiny Ruins, Forest Spirits, Tied on Teeth, She’s So Rad, Tono and the Finance Company, Kids of 88, F in Math and the Vietnam War. There will be live streaming and podcasts on 95bfm.com and video on the Listener website.

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Music Alive (Radio New Zealand Concert, 8.00pm). A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols is the perfect accompaniment to last-minute present wrapping and general Christmas business, this is one of the most popular services in the Church of England. It’s performed here by the Choir of King’s College, Cambridge, directed by Stephen Cleobury with Peter Stevens on the organ, from a concert recorded in 2008. The service, which always begins with Once in Royal David’s City, was first held on Christmas Eve 1918, immediately after the end of World War I. It was put together by Eric Milner-White, the new Dean of King’s College, who had been an army chaplain, and felt the Church of England needed more imaginative worship.

CHRISTMAS DAY

Sugar and Spice’s Christmas Morning (Radio New Zealand National, 6.06am). And all things nice for the big day, with Katrina Batten and Catriona McLeod: a mix of music and stories, interviews and a few surprises.

Christmas Church Service (Radio New Zealand National, 7.06am and 11.06pm). Come all ye faithful. This year’s service comes from the vibrant multicultural Pitt St ­Methodist Church in central Auckland. Reverend Dr Lynne Frith conducts the service and director Robert Howell leads the Pitt St Methodist Choir, with organist Colin Waters.

Bach’s Christmas Oratorio (Radio New Zealand Concert, noon and 3.00pm). This seasonal performance of the Christmas Oratorio – Bach’s interpretation of the nativity – was recorded in the Wellington Town Hall in December 2010 and features Anna Leese (soprano), Kate Spence (alto), David Hamilton (tenor) and Jared Holt (bass) with the Wellington Tudor Consort and Wellington Orchestra, conducted by Michael Stewart.

BOXING DAY

Summer Report (Radio New Zealand National, 7.00am). Geoff Robinson and Simon Mercep will have hightailed it out of the RNZ studios long before you read this and have no doubt commenced their season of lie-ins. Taking their place in the morning are Susie Ferguson and Tim Graham with a kinder, gentler and altogether sunnier version of the regular current affairs programme. You can also tune in to Kiwi Summer at 9.06am, with Lynn Freeman and Sonia Sly, and Summer Nights at 7.06pm, with Emma Smith.

Summer Sonic (Radio New Zealand Concert, noon). Brian Kay presents the first of five programmes playing this week that explore his fascination with words and music in perfect combination, called, not surprisingly, Words and Music. This was triggered during his pre-teen years in the UK when he was exposed to the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company. “Gilbert’s witty words in perfect union with Sullivan’s masterly melodies were a real ear-opener to my relatively untutored mind. That fascination for the perfect marriage between wordsmith and tunesmith remains as keen today as it did on first hearing,” Kay says. Today’s broad survey of the topic includes work by Stilgoe and Skellern, Tom Lehrer, Lerner and Loewe, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Sondheim and Bernstein. On Tuesday it’s Gilbert and Sullivan; Wednesday, Ivor Novello; Thursday, Noel Coward and Friday, Flanders and Swann.

Matinee Idle (Radio New Zealand National, 12.35pm). Described by someone as “the essential summer tonic”, what can you say but “better pass the gin!”? Phil O’Brien and Simon Morris are back for the summer, digging out obscurities, offending the offendable and broadcasting by the seat of their pants.

FRIDAY DECEMBER 30

Flying Nun Records (Radio New Zealand National, 11.06pm). This’ll make you feel old – Flying Nun Records turned 30 this year. To commemorate this milestone, here’s a repeat of a five-part doco made in 2002, presented by Karyn Hay. She takes us through the record label’s history, from 1981, when Roger Shepherd – armed only with naive optimism and $50 – started his contribution to the preservation of our popular music. Tonight: Anything Could Happen.